A Night on Everest
I didn’t really want to get up and
climb for another four to five hours,
but I wanted out of Camp 4. It was a
scary place. I fell back asleep and was
shaken awake at about noon. Funuru
and Pega said ‘let’s go.’ I think that was
the hardest 45 minutes for me. I was
half asleep and trying to pack. I was
not doing very well. I was moving very
slowly and not getting anywhere close
to being ready. Eventually both Funuru
and Pega had to help me pack if they
had any hope of getting me moving.
We did leave around 1 p.m. Pega and
Dawa climbed down with me. Dawa
didn’t need to bring anything of mine.
He was carrying down Camp 4
supplies that needed to be removed.
Pega had my sleeping bag and
sleeping pad. Funuru told me to leave
my extra food in the tent. We were
now approaching 30 hours of
climbing with a two-hour break. Pega
pointed to the start of the trail out of
Camp 4 and told me to go ahead and
he would catch up in a moment.
Dawa was with Pega. I thought I
remembered where the route started,
but as I left my tent and walked
toward the Spur, I couldn’t find the
way. There was nobody around and
Pega was nowhere to be seen.
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I was about to walk back to the tent
when I saw Pega and he waved and
pointed to head forward. We eventually
joined up.
We had to traverse the Geneva Spur
again. I was finally waking up from
my short nap. The Spur was slippery
rock that is flat for the first section
and then steep for the last third.
There was very little traffic with
mostly Sherpa going down the
mountain. They were passing us.
We made it down and to the upper
section of Lhotse face. We passed a
few climbers and Sherpa coming up.
I guess some climbers would be
trying to summit on the 24th. We
climbed down past Camp 3.5 where
I had seen the first downed climber
on the way up. We descended the
Yellow Band with a combination
of down climbing forward and
rappelling backwards. The Yellow Band
is very steep slippery rock. Crampons
don’t grab and mostly just slip. Going
forward or backwards is hard work to
maintain balance and not slip or fall.
Once off the Band and onto ice, I felt
more in control. Depending on the ice
and steepness I would climb down
forward in some areas and rappel
backwards in other areas.
JA NUA RY/F E B R UA RY 2020 | P EN N S YLVA N IA D EN TA L J O U R N A L
Beyond the Yellow Band was the
majority of the Lhotse Face. It was
another 30 minutes to get to what
was left of Camp 3. Most of the tents
for our high Camp 3 were gone. Only
two of the ten tents remained. I was
getting thirsty, so we stopped for a
break. I was now drinking my water
mixed with UCAN at a faster rate than
when we climbed to the summit earlier.
After our break we continued down.
The amount of traffic over the past
several days had transformed the
Lhotse Face from a steep sheet of
ice two weeks earlier to a series of
steps lightly covered with snow.
The conditions made forward down
climbing easier with no need to
rappel. We continued down in good
spirits. Pega had his cell phone out
and was taking pictures and video.
I also pulled out my camera only to
remember that I had covered it with
gel accidentally. The gel had frozen
enough that I could break it off rather
than smear it around. I cleaned it
enough to take pictures when I could.
It was sunny and around 3:00 pm.
It was warmer and I was able to
convert to a pair of gloves and pack
the mittens away. I had on my
sunglasses since leaving Camp 4.